priyom.org
Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source, since anyone can edit it.Here's Priyom's summary on the various numbers stations, including mentions of the cases where Cuban operatives in the US were using them.
The case I recall reading about it mentioned here, the Ana Montes case that occurred in 2001.
Number Stations › Priyom.org
Ana Montes worked in the DIA, and part of her espionage involved receiving instructions from numbers stations. Section mentioning the numbers stations instructions is the third section down.:
Ana Montes - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Then -- to follow your own lead -- please use some common sense. Read the 2016 Washington Post article linked at the bottom of the Wiki page, which documents what was placed in the Wiki. It's the one that is footnoted next to the section that mentions the use of numbers stations by Montes. In the WA Post article the mention of how a Sony SW radio was used is about 30 paragraphs into the Post article.
Actually, the phenomenon hasn't gone anywhere and there's been gobs of mainstream coverage of its continued existence right into the modern internet age. One good example:
www.radioworld.com
Their financial straits are dire in deed, but dictatorships have never been known to spare any expense on their intelligence activities, no matter how many of their peoples are living without access to food, basic services, or electricity. Staying in and securing their power is the primary goal, alas.
I've seen people speculating for decades that some countries run them as decoys, like to convince foreign nations that their spies were deployed throughout the world. But that logic has never made sense. Every intelligence agency knows all the other countries' intelligence agnecies spy, on friends or foes alike. There would be no point in running huge shortwave transmitters broadcasting garbage messages just to imply something everyone either already knows, or would never be negligent enough not to just assume.
Thanks. I think that the evidence shows that at least some of these transmissions have intelligence purposes. For one thing, the NSA can't yet monitor which stations you tune in on your Tecsun, or your SDR that you use with your laptop. It, and other US agencies, can indeed monitor internet communications -- especially if they're from overseas. Same thing with overseas phone communications.Actually, the phenomenon hasn't gone anywhere and there's been gobs of mainstream coverage of its continued existence right into the modern internet age. One good example:
Do Shortwave ‘Numbers Stations’ Really Instruct Spies?
Unidentified radio broadcasts have been transmitting coded messages, using numbers for years
There are also articles discussing their continued use into the past decade or so from Vice, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, the BBC, NPR, and Wired.
Their financial straits are dire in deed, but dictatorships have never been known to spare any expense on their intelligence activities, no matter how many of their peoples are living without access to food, basic services, or electricity. Staying in and securing their power is the primary goal, alas.
I've seen people speculating for decades that some countries run them as decoys, like to convince foreign nations that their spies were deployed throughout the world. But that logic has never made sense. Every intelligence agency knows all the other countries' intelligence agnecies spy, on friends or foes alike. There would be no point in running huge shortwave transmitters broadcasting garbage messages just to imply something everyone either already knows, or would never be negligent enough not to just assume.
As far as proof they're used by spies, that's not a matter of speculation anymore. For many decades there wasn't any, but court convictions with publicly presented proof began happening in the late 20th century and continued into the last couple decades. You can find a bunch of examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_stations#History, including more than a couple cases of spies in America being caught using Cuba's numbers station in particular. (The Radio World article above also mentions one of the Cuban numbers station cases involving spies working in the U.S.)
I know people are down on Wikipedia around here, but seriously, just read that section. The citations are good, and when the Internet Archive finishes fixing all the damage done by the cyberturds who hacked it recently, they'll actually be readable.
Also, great citations @boombox4!
Have you ever lived under a dictatorship? I have, and you are oversimplifying and "Americanizing" such systems.
The assumption all along has been that most of the transmission is gibberish but that certain moments and sequences have value. There is really no confirmation on either side of the political spectrum.
And even that "evidence" is questionable.
That is undoubtedly true, and one could have said that about many of the Soviet spies during the Cold War, some of whom held regular jobs and did little more than simple tasks like drops. And -- some of them used SW radios. There was a book on the KGB I read in the 80's where the author talked about a Soviet man who -- after being trained in American English and a trade -- was snuck into the US, lived in the Midwest, got married under his new identity, and he was told to listen to the SW radio for instructions that never came. I don't remember if he was in place just in case a drop was needed, or if his house was to be a safe house.
The articles below the link YeOldeSchool posted state otherwise. One of documents below the article is a Federal indictment that mentions the use of SW radio on page 6. The transmissions definitely weren't 'gibberish' according to the Federal prosecutor involved in Myers' case.
Trust me they have. You would be surprised how much you can buy on the dark web. Then there are "assets" double agents who like money.
Arnie Corro took those secrets with him to that big transmitter upstairs.
Probably about the clash on 15140 kHz. Oman used to put in a decent signal into Texas during the day before being stepped in by RHC. 9500 was used by Oman during North American evenings without any problems. Oman’s own shortwave broadcasts are now gone, though the BBC relay in the country is still going.
Cuba hasn’t bothered to coordinate and register any of their SW output with the HFCC.
But, for that matter, neither is the internet, when you have an agency like the NSA. My guess is IF there are agents in the US, SW might be more untraceable than using an internet connection. All you need is a radio and a one time pad, even if it's on your own laptop. Internet connections can be monitored by ISP's (subject to search warrants if requested by Federal agencies) as well as direct monitoring by government agencies (if the internet connection is international).
